Monday, May 20, 2013

Fractions, Fudge, Flowers, and more: Hands on Learning Activities for Elementary School

Today we were learning some more about fractions and I thought rather than using their books we'd turn to cookbooks! We learned a bit about science by re- potting some flowers and releasing our butterflies too.

I handed them each a cookbook and I told them I needed them all to try and agree on one thing. We had less than an hour before we needed to leave and I'm only one person.... so of course they all picked a different recipe!

They searched through the books and cabinets until we found all the ingredients for them each to make something. I figured it was a great kitchen science lesson too as well as a lesson on estimation (we had to decide if we had enough of each ingredient to follow the recipe) and fractions.

Evan settled down to enjoy his Parmesan tortilla chips with some hummus while I helped Ian with his peanut butter fudge and Alec with his peanut butter chip cookies.

We managed to finish everything, but just barely.

We spent the afternoon listening to books on CD finishing up Ms. Lagrange Is Strange and Magic Tree House book Season of the Sandstorms.

I asked the boys if they'd like to help me plant some of the flowers we bought. They said no, but once I had to use a hammer and nail to make some holes in the bottom of the pots, I suddenly had tons of help. Ian then wanted to help with the dirt while Alec decided he wanted to do all the watering. We got 9 planters done in 30 minutes! They look real pretty along our wall too.

I was hoping the sun would come out and we could let the last of our butterflies go too before dinner, and it did. Evan was happy he got to hold one in his hand like his brothers did yesterday and they all had equal turns so that was good. This has been such a fun, engaging science lesson that the boys have already asked if we can get more caterpillars and do it again. We kept one of the butterfly gardens and I told them I'm sure we could order more caterpillars next spring.